Spam declines after hosting company shutdown

Have you noticed any less spam in your inbox recently? You should, according to a Washington Post report, which claims the volume of junk mail sent worldwide has dropped drastically since the shadowy web hosting firm responsible for much of it was taken offline by two major ISPs yesterday.

Apparently, security experts have been gathering information the past few months about a San Jose-based hosting company called McColo, only to discover it was responsible for coordinating roughly 75 percent of all spam sent each day. More seriously, the newspaper reports that the company was also hosting child pornography web sites for criminal organizations.

Enlisting ISPs in the battle against spam may prove successful for now, but the shutdown is not expected to affect the levels of spam in the long or even medium term, as the activities previously hosted by McColo are likely to be revived elsewhere. Bringing the people behind McColo and other similar operations to justice would make a bigger impact, though thats certainly easier said than done.